There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

Regardless of how you choose to “build your list” there are certain techniques that are essential to driving response rates, and results. As many people shift from traditional email list systems to the social sphere, email is still the most trusted form of online communication (next to the website itself).. but many people feel their email series isn’t engaging their members like social does, however the same principles actually apply to both and have been bringing high engagement rates across various types of media.

Create a Habit

The #1 tool for engagement is creating a behavior pattern. Maintain consistency in the type and frequency of content so your audience can know when to look for your email, blog post, or social media posts. Make sure your content is generally within the realm of the originating keywords so that you are on topic with your audience. Create an expectation from your reader to seek out future & even past postings.

Be Unique

Always when sending your messages, make sure it is you. Put some of your own language, way of speaking, mannerisms, and even perspectives in to your emails. Don’t be afraid to offend because speaking the language of your supporters creates stronger loyalty and respect than you had of the ones who may be offended. Your audience has learned to ignore bots and form letters and are worth the time of creating genuine, unique content with your own perspective. It doesn’t matter if you can’t spell correctly – people will respect that it is an obvious person doing the work.

Provide Content

The key to generating sales using your social media and email campaigns is to not sell at all. Provide real, actionable content to your audience. If you just send them sales messages they will easily learn to ignore your emails, or even unsubscribe. Providing content that they want and can use, will leave them searching and waiting for your next email. Build a level of trust, respect, and loyalty that will inspire them to seek out your products. On the rare occasions you DO try and directly sell them something, do it in a way that really shows the value of the product. Post it in a way that explains how they can use it to solve a problem that you know they face (because you know them by now, and the people who are still reading weekly are narrowed down to a focused, responsive group). Continue also to follow up with them about this product, and how they can continue to use it in future posts or emails, expanding the value of their purchase.

Create Reciprocation

Make sure you have plenty of opportunities for your audience to reach back to you, connect with you, to share their experiences and knowledge with you. Use this opportunity to create real connections with your audience, and better learn about your audience so you can create more tailored content. Often times more people are likely to respond via email than social media, unless you ask a direct question.

Leverage Yourself

I’ll leave you with this last key.. make sure you are using your resources of one list, to expand into the other. The way you use Pinterest is not the same way you’ll use Facebook, so while you are creating unique content for each platform, you may have people in your audience who found you on a site they don’t regularly use, and simply informing them so they can engage with you on their preferred platform. Take note though that these posts will often come across as sales messages so make sure to keep them few and far between.